


Approach Without Meaning

by ideallyqualia



Series: Rare Pairs [75]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Canon Universe, M/M, Pre-Canon, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-14
Updated: 2017-03-14
Packaged: 2018-10-04 15:23:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10282064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ideallyqualia/pseuds/ideallyqualia
Summary: First year Shirabu has become the constant and unfortunate supply of entertainment for Tendou.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tinypersonhotel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinypersonhotel/gifts).



> Hey [lau](http://pizzawitch.tumblr.com/)! I'm so sorry I'm so late, I've been sick for a while! Happy rare pair-ing!

Every Thursday, Tendou sat in the common room of the dorm building and played video games on the TV. Despite being only one person, he hogged it and kept everyone else from using it. If people were already in the room, lounging or studying, Tendou walked in and went straight for the TV to turn it on and start playing video games, without a word to anyone else. Interrupting their conversations with his presence brought a piercingly awkward silence every time, and most people left one by one instead of complaining, quietly leaving just as awkwardly as the way Tendou entered. He almost always managed to displace them.

After just a few weeks of going to Shiratorizawa and being on the volleyball team, Shirabu knew this. Everyone complained enough that even the first years heard about him.

One day, Tendou invited Shirabu to play video games with him.

"C'mon, Kenjirou," Tendou cooed into the phone. "You don't even have to play! Just sit and watch."

Shirabu's face didn't change. He heard slyness shaping Tendou's voice, the audial equivalent of a smug smile.

"I have homework."

"Do it while watching me."

"It'll take way longer."

"Why? Am I distracting to you?" Tendou asked.

Shirabu sighed and closed his eyes with a mutter. "Do you _want_ me to hang up?"

"Hm, you avoided the question." Rustling came from Tendou's line. "I'll inconveniently remember this."

"You're taking too much time, and I'm busy. Goodbye, Tendou-san."

"Wait--"

Shirabu ended the call and swiveled in his chair to dump the phone on his bed. The best part of Tendou's phone calls were the seconds before Shirabu hung up; Tendou dropped whatever joke he was playing or tone he was using and spent a desperate moment trying to convince Shirabu to stay on the phone. If he didn't actually hang up, though, then Tendou would stop believing that he'd do it, so Shirabu always made sure he did.

When Tendou had first offered him his number, Shirabu threatened to do this, and Tendou still gave it to him. It was an initiation rite for first years to get an upperclassman's phone number, Tendou said. Tendou had weeks to get to know Shirabu and find out for himself how irritable Shirabu could get, but he still insisted on it.

Ten minutes later, someone knocked on the door. Shirabu dragged himself to open it.

"Shirabu, Tendou wants you downstairs," Ushijima said.

"No."

Ushijima stilled in the doorway with his hand on the wall. Leaning his weight into his hand pulled his head into a tilt. "He wants you downstairs."

"No."

"But he asked me to bring you downstairs."

"Tell him I'm not coming."

Ushijima's stare deepened and quieted. His mouth twitched, and Shirabu recognized the beginnings of a frown.

His shoulders caved in on himself, and he sighed. "Fine. I'll go to get Tendou off your back. But I'm not staying long."

"Thank you." Ushijima nodded and led him away.

Tendou was sitting in a chair in front of the TV, his legs stretched out spread-eagled on the floor and his arms bent behind his head, his controller on his lap. He turned and greeted them with a grin. "Wakatoshi! Kenjirou!"

Shirabu sat in a chair along the wall by dropping his body's dead weight. "Why do I have to be here?"

"I need an audience." Tendou unpaused the TV and resumed the video game.

Ushijima took a seat next to Tendou and flipped the armrest desk back into place to return to doing his homework. He stacked a book and notebook on the desk and grabbed a pencil from his school bag.

Shirabu leaned in his chair and rearranged himself until he fit in sideways, his back against one armrest and his feet up against the other one. "How do you get anything done, Ushijima?"

Ushijima didn't respond.

"Ushijima?"

"He's got earphones on," Tendou said without looking.

Shirabu sat higher. " _Ushijima_ 's listening to music?"

Tendou shrugged, his hands still on the controller and pressing buttons. "We all have our secrets." A congratulatory screen appeared, and Tendou lowered the controller as the game tallied what he completed. "What're some of yours, Kenjirou?"

"I don't have any." Shirabu opened his laptop and crowded around it to magnify his disinterest, his shoulders stiffening.

"Oh? That means you're boring, then." Tendou let his hand dangle. "Don't worry, it's curable."

"If I'm boring enough, will you leave me alone?" Shirabu asked as he waited for his computer to finish loading and booting everything.

Tendou burst out laughing. "That'll never happen."

"Why not?"

"You're entertaining enough to keep." Tendou patted the air with his hand, pretending Shirabu's head was underneath it.

"You just called me boring."

"Well, you are. You won't play video games with me." Tendou bent his hand and exaggerated pressing a button with a finger to continue past the current screen.

"Then why do you want me around?"

" _Because_..." Tendou hunched forward to grip his controller. "Damnit, Kenjirou, don't drag me with you into your mind games, traps, and holes."

"This is barely a conversation." Shirabu opened files on his computer and took out a piece of paper to study with a pen.

Tendou leaned to the side, closer to Shirabu. "You're quiet now."

"I'm busy now."

"Gotcha. Just make sure to cheer for me once in a while."

Shirabu looked up to give him a flat stare, but he was already facing the TV again. Shirabu channeled it into an annoyed forced breath for Tendou to hear.

Tendou stopped bothering him and played the game on his own. Shirabu shifted several times in his chair to get comfortable after restlessness, and he lost attention on everything around him as he did homework. The only sounds in the room were Tendou's engrossed mumbling and button presses, and the faint musical backdrop of Ushijima's earphones.

Tendou screeched.

Shirabu glanced up. "Can't you be quiet?"

"No! I just died!" Tendou's arms stretched down in a jerk, the controller moving with his hands. "This is so hard!"

He continued to yell and curse as he tried and tried to finish a battle. He didn't carry the controller with him to physically repeat the controls, but that was a minor blessing compared to the screeching and screaming.

Shirabu looked at Ushijima. He still didn't react to anything happening in the room. Shirabu followed his example and plugged in earphones to listen to music and ignore Tendou.

Shirabu could still hear him yelling. He tore the earphones out and hit his hands on the desk of his chair.

"Can you shut up?"

Tendou swiveled. "Me? Shut up?"

"Yeah. You."

Tendou patted the empty chair next to himself. Ushijima occupied the one on his other side. "If you can't concentrate, you should just play. Or watch me, with complete and devoted attention."

"No."

"Your choice, Kenjirou."

"Ushijima isn't even watching. He's doing his homework."

"He just happens to enjoy it." Tendou gestured over Ushijima. "What a good loyal friend."

Ushijima remained unaware of their conversation. He wrote in his notebook.

Shirabu hunkered down in his chair and refused to react to Tendou anymore. He talked to himself in his head and forced himself to focus on only his material and nothing else. In turn Tendou refused to leave his head, lodged by the reverse psychology against Shirabu's pure spite, and Shirabu couldn't get anything done. The screen blared in front of him, and Tendou still anguished over the boss battle.

The next time Shirabu removed his earphones, he heard loud music coming from Tendou's computer. The song was casual and a little slow, jarring Shirabu from the boss battle onscreen.

"Why're you playing this music?"

Tendou perked in a jump. "Interested?"

"I just want to know why."

Tendou nodded cheerfully. "To take the edge off boss battles, you have to have inappropriate background music."

Shirabu exhaled heavily enough to disturb his bangs. "What."

"Inappropriate music. Music that's inappropriate to the mood--"

"I know what that means."

"You see, Kenjirou, boss battles can get scary," Tendou continued, "and you can make mistakes from the adrenaline."

"God, you're kidding, right?"

Tendou briefly shook his head with a small smile on his face, undeterred. "If you listen to weird music, then you're not so wired up."

"Won't that distract you?"

"Nah." Tendou waved him off. "Background music is just, in the background. Not distracting."

"I can't argue with that logic." Shirabu went back to listening to his own music.

 

* * *

 

A week later, Ushijima reappeared at Shirabu's door.

"Are you going to come again? Tendou wants you there," Ushijima said.

Shirabu groaned. "I guess. You'll both bug me if I say no."

Ushijima stepped aside and waited for Shirabu to collect his belongings into his bag. When Shirabu finished, he found Ushijima standing patiently outside his room.

They walked downstairs, and from the middle of the first floor hallway, they could hear Tendou's screeching. Shirabu prepared himself for a repeat of last week.

"We can hear you screaming from down the hall," Shirabu said.

Tendou paused the game and turned to see them, stretching his arm on the back of the chair. "You did?" He fought a pleased grin.

Ushijima sat beside him, and Shirabu chose a chair along the wall again, perpendicular to the chairs Tendou and Ushijima sat in.

Shirabu increased the volume on his computer and chose to ignore Tendou right away. For the next half hour, every time he removed his eyes from his homework and stared at the walls, he saw Tendou playing in the periphery.

Tendou then paused his game and moved to sit next to Shirabu. "Kenjirou, wanna try playing?"

He continued to speak until Shirabu tugged out his earphones to listen. "What?"

"Wanna play? I'm stuck. Give it a shot." Tendou pushed on his shoulder to encourage him.

"No. I don't even know how to play."

Tendou sat higher. "I'll teach you!"

Shirabu realized he had just made a mistake. He jerked his head down to stare at his laptop. "No. I'm doing homework."

"C'mon, you can take a break." Tendou insisted on his shoulder with harder force. "It'll be fun. Don't you need to finish your earthly business and learn to have fun before you can move on from being a ghost?"

"A ghost," Shirabu said.

Tendou relocated his laptop and homework to the nearest chair, and dragged Shirabu out of his seat. Instead of fighting back, Shirabu became dead weight again, letting his arms and legs lose their strength as he slouched in the chair and went limp. Tendou grabbed his shoulders and shook him.

"Kenjirou, don't go! If you leave now, I'll never see you again."

"Can't you just leave me alone."

"I don't know where you're going, but take me with you." Tendou collapsed on top of Shirabu. His head fell and landed cheek to cheek with Shirabu, uncomfortably fitting well and too close. Shirabu regained resolve and shoved him.

"Get off!"

"Kenjirou, Kenjirou..." Tendou used an exaggerated voice of hurt. "I'm never letting you go." He hardened his arms around Shirabu.

"This is _painful_ ," Shirabu croaked.

"That's good. That means you're staying for a while."

Shirabu groaned. "Just let me go."

Tendou maneuvered his arms to hook them under Shirabu's arms and legs and lift him. "After I teach you how to play."

" _Tendou_ ," Shirabu screeched. He dug his hands into Tendou's arms to scratch him, but his short fingernails didn't do anything but rub the fabric of Tendou's shirt.

Tendou couldn't stay steady as Shirabu surged his struggle and pummeled Tendou. Shirabu's legs kicked the air.

"You're so aggressive for someone so light and short," Tendou commented.

"Stop."

"Don't get mad. Ghosts are supposed to be light."

"Enough!" Shirabu moved to sock him, but Tendou dumped him on the last free chair in front of the TV.

"Here, Kenjirou. The perfect distance from the TV." Tendou handed him the controller.

Shirabu righted himself and eyed it. "Do I really have to do this?"

"Yes." Tendou retreated into his own space and crossed his legs. He nodded. "Ready?"

"No."

Tendou motioned at the controller. "Press that button right here to jump."

"I really don't want to--"

"That's the wrong button, Kenjirou--"

Tendou leaned over and wrestled back control of half the controller. Shirabu slapped him away.

"You're making it worse!"

The character fell off a ledge and died, and the game over screen flashed. Shirabu grumbled.

"I'll show you how to properly play. Look." Tendou scooted closer and guided Shirabu's hands to the buttons. "Press this and this to dash and attack at the same time."

"...Okay."

Tendou directed Shirabu to more buttons. "This one's to jump. This one's to run."

"I got that."

"And this one's to block." Tendou's mouth stretched into a grin.

Shirabu watched the protagonist raise his sword to deflect an imaginary opponent. It resembled nothing close to Tendou's block. "You suck at this game, don't you?"

"What?" Tendou sat straight and stiff, his mouth open to emit a shrill noise. "I'm _great_ at this game!"

"Then why do you need my help?"

Tendou brought his fist into his other hand to crack his knuckles as he thought. "You got me."

"So you're terrible."

"Yes, Kenjirou, I suck at this game. I need your help," he said with false sincerity.

Shirabu stretched in his seat and groaned. He looked down at the controller, detached curiosity in his eyes. "Fine."

He accepted responsibility and steered the character. Threatening music played from the TV speakers, and the game presented a cutscene.

"Oh, I'm scared," Shirabu said.

"Take this seriously."

Shirabu sighed. "Why can't Ushijima do this?"

"He's tried. He doesn't like video games."

"And I _do_?"

Shirabu didn't have more time to speak. The battle began, and he whirred into frantic button mashing. Within four minutes he died.

Shirabu raised the controller and inspected it. "Why do you like this?"

"Well, I like the actual game, and not the controller." Tendou nudged him. "Go again."

"Back off." Shirabu swatted him away without looking at him. He made 12 more tries, and he died each time.

"You'll get it next time," Tendou said.

"Why can't you skip this cutscene?" Shirabu shoved the controller at Tendou's arm. "Take it. I give up. It's too annoying."

"You're giving up so easily?"

"That's what I just said." Shirabu moved back to his old chair. "I'm not playing video games anymore."

"You're so..." Tendou grimaced trying to come up with something that Shirabu couldn't tear down again. Shirabu wore a small grin, the tables turned.

 

* * *

 

Tendou slinked to sidle beside Shirabu. Practice had just ended, and Tendou was carrying his sports bag along his waist. Some of the team had already headed home after clean up, including Ushijima, Kawanishi, and Reon.

"Hey, Kenjirou. Wanna give this a listen?" Tendou dangled his earphones.

"What is it?"

"Just listen." Tendou raised his phone from his bag and scrolled through until he found what he wanted. He plugged his earphones in.

Shirabu leaned ear-first to accept an earphone. Tendou gave it to him with a concealed smug twitch in his mouth.

Groans and heavy breaths filled his ear, thick with exaggerated emotion. Shirabu stiffened. "What is this? Is this _BL_?" His revulsion manifested into a disgusted scowl.

Tendou laughed. "Isn't this hilarious stuff?"

" _No_! Get away from me!" Shirabu elbowed him.

Tendou fought against Shirabu to keep it in his ear. "Just listen. It's really funny."

Shirabu shoved at his chest. "I'm not listening to this."

Tendou staggered for a moment. He remained unaffected, grinning and cheerful. "I dare you to, then."

"You can't convince me to do anything by just making it into a dare." Shirabu wrangled himself free and ran.

"Kenjirou!"

"Why?!"

"It's funny!"

Tendou caught him in the doorway of their dorm building, and he crowded around Shirabu and moved an earphone to his ear. He trapped Shirabu to a wall.

"What's the matter? Can't even listen for a minute?"

"No. I'm a spineless pushover," Shirabu said. "Make someone else do it if you have to."

"But you're the most fun to bother. No one else squirms and complains this much."

Shirabu closed his eyes. "So if I stop reacting to you, you'll go away?"

"Hm." Tendou concentrated his thoughts on the ceiling. "Theoretically, but I don't want that."

"Give it to me." Shirabu yanked the earphones from Tendou's hand. "I won't react at all to this."

Tendou stood back and crossed his arms, his shoulders rising and sloping his height to make him taller.

Shirabu clamped his hands over his ears and blocked out any more of Tendou's voice. All that remained were the sounds coming from the BL track, including sloppy breaths and biting noises.

"You're turning red. You're about to explode," Tendou remarked.

Shirabu glared at him.

"Hang in there, Kenjirou."

Yamagata and Semi stopped behind Tendou. "What're you doing?" Yamagata asked.

Tendou snickered. "I'm making him listen to two guys making out."

Semi's head jerked. "I don't want to hear this."

"Relax, you're not the one being tormented." Yamagata steered Semi away.

"That's fine. Go." Tendou watched Shirabu. "Stay alive."

Shirabu moved on and tried to stop paying attention to the track. The terrible conversation and dramatic voices _did_ have some humor to it, but the increased slurping and biting noises brought too much secondhand embarrassment. Rolling heat climbed Shirabu's back, leaving his body like a ghost escaping boiling water. He tore the earphones out during one loud bite-induced moan and threw them at Tendou.

"That's _disgusting_."

Tendou reexamined his phone screen. His head swayed to the side. "Oh, oops."

"What do you mean _oops_."

"I made you listen to the vampire one."

"Vampire."

"Yeah." Tendou's mouth pinched small to disguise the upward shape. "Even I didn't listen to that. What was it like?" As he asked, he deleted it. Shirabu suspected he downloaded it just to make him listen.

"Like someone noisily eating chicken in a studio." Shirabu stomped on Tendou's foot. "I'm never listening to you again."

Shirabu continued to stomp away to go to his room.

"You need to work on your lying and acting, Kenjirou!" Tendou called after him. "Your arms and neck were all red! You were so embarrassed! Splotchy! Angry!"

Shirabu slammed his door.

 

* * *

 

Tendou acted in Ushijima's place. He texted and called Shirabu so many times that Shirabu went to the TV room to complain to him in person.

When he arrived, he changed his mind and took Tendou's phone away, powered it off, and removed the battery. He walked away to stuff it into the cushions of a sofa.

Tendou turned. "Why do you think I'm a pushover?"

"You're not?"

"Then why do you do these things?" Tendou stood and approached him to get it back. Shirabu froze. He thought Tendou was too busy to catch him, but the screen kept blaring, and he realized Tendou was just watching videos of other people playing video games.

"I don't know, why do you?" Shirabu stepped aside to avoid Tendou diving into the couch and rummaging to retrieve his phone.

Tendou whipped his head around. "Anyway, you're just in time, Kenjirou."

"In time for what? And why isn't Ushijima here?"

"He had homework to do."

"I do too," Shirabu said.

"You can do it here, I don't mind." Tendou plopped back into his chair. "So I have a game for you, Kenjirou."

"It's a visual novel, isn't it."

"No," Tendou snapped, "it's not." He closed out of a window that had the game open.

Shirabu sighed. "Go ahead and play it."

"Not if you're going to make fun of it."

"Then what's the point?"

Tendou's grin soured. "Fine. You can, but you have to play."

"No."

"Don't you want to?"

"Not really."

"You should."

"Why do you even have this?" Shirabu asked.

Tendou placed his hand on the top of his laptop to open it further. "Don't you ever get curious about them?"

"No."

"You're a liar," Tendou said, without much conviction.

Still, Shirabu felt moved by irritation. He's been haunted by Tendou for a while now. He dragged a chair next to Tendou and grabbed the controller.

Tendou's grin returned, smug and stretched to the side like a drawing about to fall off his face. "Couldn't help it anymore, huh? I knew you were a liar."

Shirabu typed in a name for himself, tediously moving the game cursor with his controller to click and spell it out: Tendou Satori.

"Hey. Don't do that. What're you planning?" Tendou asked. He leaned a little closer, within a respectable distance but still curious.

Shirabu didn't answer. He proceeded to select some of the worst answers and options, and Tendou watched.

"You think I'm that terrible a person, Kenjirou?"

"No. Why?"

Tendou pointed at the TV screen. "You're acting like a terrible person. But _reasonably_. You're, you're not choosing the absolute worst things and being a complete asshole."

Shirabu smashed a few buttons to make the text scroll faster. "I hate being a jerk in video games. You'd have to really be cruel to enjoy that."

"Then why are you _doing_  this?"

At the on-screen prompt, "What do you think of this shirt I'm wearing?" Shirabu selected: It bothers my eyes.

"To bug you."

Tendou turned from Shirabu to gauge the girl's reaction. "You have a terrible sense of fun."

"I get the feeling that that's why you like me." Shirabu rushed through more text. Despite the dull sounds of padded button pressing, the brief voiceless silence was uncomfortable. "I don't understand _why_ , but you never leave me alone."

Tendou spoke in a rushed start, "My heart tugs at the fact that you _don't know what fun is_."

Shirabu rolled his eyes.

"Do I need to teach you?" Tendou asked.

"Please don't."

Tendou eyed the controller. "In your free time, you enjoy torturing yourself by torturing fictional characters to torture me, but you don't actually enjoy any of it."

"I don't understand a word you just said."

"I don't remember what I said." Tendou slouched in his chair and crept his feet along the floor, until his head came near his crossed arms. "Do you know what happens if you don't end up on anyone's routes at all?"

"What?"

"You die."

"You're joking," Shirabu said.

"I wish."

"Seriously. Why do you even play these games?"

"I'll explain if you explain why you agreed to play it in the first place."

Shirabu didn't answer. He kept playing. An hour later, his Tendou did die, and a game over screen announced itself.

"This is a terrible game. I tried being nice sometimes, too."

Tendou had rearranged himself to sit sprawled across his chair, his feet kicked up on an armrest. "The worst ones are the best. Also, a surprising amount of these games actually have a dead end route."

"With literal death?"

Tendou shrugged. "Sometimes the death is hilarious."

"I think you're the one with a questionable sense of entertainment." Shirabu dropped the controller on Tendou's leg. "Please never make me play this again."

"As long as you never name a character after me again." Tendou closed the game, and his browser with its 20 tabs appeared on the screen.

Shirabu opened his backpack. "I'm going to do my homework now, and you are definitely not going to bother me, unless you want me to reenact that fake Tendou I killed."

Tendou flashed him a reassuring smile. "No, I want him to stay dead."

Shirabu yanked out a notebook and started ignoring him.

 

* * *

 

Shirabu was a horrible judge of grievances -- regret, anger, sadness, sometimes he couldn't tell if he was going to regret something or get mad until the heat of the moment.

He had no one to blame but himself when he drifted downstairs, at the same time as the previous weeks, to join Tendou in his useless free time. He felt weak regret, but he couldn't bring himself to act on it.

Tendou threw his arms in the air. "Wow, you came early, and on your own! I didn't get the chance to summon you."

"Yeah, time's what you needed." Shirabu sat next to Tendou and crossed his arms. "What've you been doing?"

"I was going to play video game, but now that you're here, I think we should watch a movie." Tendou scrolled through his computer. "Got any favorites?"

"No."

"That's sad." Tendou hummed. "I'll pick at random, then."

"Oh, god."

"Do you have a better idea?"

"At least pick a well-liked movie. I haven't seen much. You could show me what's popular and I wouldn't know."

Tendou selected a livestream of a room full of cats.

"I'm not _that_ deprived," Shirabu complained.

"You sounded like you needed some cats." Tendou pointed at a brown cat curled into a vague ball. "That one. That one's you."

"It's sleeping."

The cat remained still, and it wore a grumpy frown, but its eyes were closed with quiet peace. Shirabu stared at it.

"Which cat do you want to be, then?"

"I'd rather not be a cat at all."

"Okay. Fish? Bird? Dog?"

"Movie."

"You can't be an entire movie," Tendou said.

"If I'm not a movie, then I don't know why I'm so entertaining to you."

Tendou's mouth twitched, suffering through an unwanted grin. He gave in and wore it. "Want to know something?"

"What?"

"I lied."

"About what?" Shirabu asked, voice flatter.

"I didn't make any other first year get one of our numbers, and you're the only one I gave it to." Tendou let his head fall to the side, tilting to look at Shirabu. "How special is that?"

"All I asked for was a movie," Shirabu mumbled. He slouched lower in his chair and mimicked Tendou's usual laziness, sinking parallel to the hot feeling in his chest and stomach.

"Alright, alright. I'll go with random in moderation, that's how I'll pick." Tendou closed all of his tabs and opened a slew of new ones. Shirabu had never felt more relief in his life than not having to talk as Tendou chose a movie and let it play.

**Author's Note:**

> (General A/N that exists at the end of all my fics): I find unsolicited concrit really rude, I'm not looking for any. Please don't tell me someone was OOC/something happened you didn't like/it's too short/etc. in any bookmarks or comments.


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